Tuesday, January 21, 2014

When Mike Crawley won the presidency of the Liberal Party of Canada in January 2012, defeating Sheila Copps, Alexandra Mendes and Ron Hartling at the party’s biennial convention in Ottawa, the party faced a number of challenges:
declining public support, a weary volunteer base and a worrying fundraising
gap. Add to that running a leadership race, and creating a supporter system at the direction of the delegates as part of that leadership process.

I recently interviewed Crawley about his term as president,
and his advice for his successor. The following is an edited transcript of our
conversation.

What do you see as
the role of party president, and has that changed since you took the job?

The role of the president depends on what the party is going
through at that given moment in history. For the first portion of my term I was
a very active president. The board had to manage the decisions around the
leadership selection process, and one of my roles was to ensure there was a number
of candidates contesting the leadership, and encourage candidates to seek the
leadership. Later the role changed somewhat, and was much more about acting as
the voice of the membership, speaking to the leader on the wishes of the
membership, and providing oversight of the party for the members as well.

What were you seeking
to accomplish when you took on the job?

I wanted to create a much more cohesive party. PTAs
(provincial and territorial associations), ridings, and the Liberal Party
national office need to work together as one, not as separate silos. I think
that’s been a chronic problem the party has had for years. I think we’ve made
great progress in breaking down a number of those barriers, particularly
between LPC and the PTAs, and they’re working much more in concert than I’ve
ever seen before.

The second was to build an on the ground political
organization, which to a great extent the party hasn’t had in many years. We’ve
made great progress getting a network of field organizers across the country,
and uploading paperwork and administration from the provinces so they can focus
on field organization.

Third was to improve our fundraising capacity and modernize
the fundraising infrastructure of the party. On that score it’s been great
progress. The recent fundraising results are a result of the leader and his
popularity, but were also aided by the enhanced infrastructure we’ve created.

Finally, the selection of the leader was critical, at a key
juncture for the party, and we took the time to have a truly open and
competitive process. I think we had the
most open leadership process any party has had in Canada at the federal level.
Over 300,000 people were engaged and became involved. We accomplished a lot of
what we set out to in that regard, and taking the time to run an open
leadership process has served the party well.

Was there anything that
was unexpected?

There were a lot of people eager to be part of the change,
and really renew the party.

I was probably a bit surprised at some of the resistance
there was to some of the (organizational and administrative) changes. Probably
more resistance than I’d thought, but we got there in the end. It was difficult
sometimes. We tend to cling to what we’ve got. My view at the time was that we
needed to make the big changes we’ve been putting off. Different parts of the
party should act as one. Having separate PTAs with boards that are accountable
to ridings is not exclusive of working together.

There’s still a lot to be done creating channels and
vehicles for open policy discussion and debate within the party. The Justin Trudeau
campaign did some great stuff with SoapBox during the campaign, and bringing
some of those processes over into the party would be a good thing.

Was the supporter
system a success? Should it be reformed?

The supporter system was a big success. It brought a lot of
new people into the party. We’re having some success converting them into more
active participants in the party. In terms of opening up the party, it achieved
what we needed it to, it was the right vehicle. We won’t be in a leadership
race for years so there’s time for tweaks but we’re making good progress, and we’re
looking at new, different and creative ways to engage with supporters.

Is the party ready
for the end of the public subsidy provided to political parties?

We certainty are. We’ve had that date fixed in our minds
since the beginning of my term. Staff, and Mr. (Bob) Rae when he became interim
leader, were very fixed on that looming date. We’ve come a long ways
to relying solely on individual donations. We’ve had our best December, our
best quarter in Q4, and all the evidence is the party is able to compete with
the Conservatives on fundraising without this public subsidy.

What would you say is
the biggest challenge facing your successor?

The obvious challenge is winning the 2015 election. That we
put forward as strong a campaign as possible, that we’re as organized as
possible across the country. That’s the obvious challenge for the next
president, working in concert with the leader and the election readiness team.

What advice would you
give your successor?

My advice would be take the big steps to open up the party,
to build a more cohesive party, and be vigilant in making sure the organization
doesn’t slip back into some of those old bad habits.

Any final thoughts?

It’s been an honour to be president of our party at such a
critical juncture in its history. I truly enjoyed working with Mr. Rae, Mr.
Trudeau and the board of the party in moving it forward.